Short Story: The searcher
@innertalks (22088)
Australia
April 5, 2022 10:40pm CST
John was an endless searcher, always searching for what he thought was the best option for him to take, or to use, in his life.
John was never satisfied with what he had already found.
John never used what he had, but always searched for some so-called better alternative to use first.
This happened when he was at school; instead of using the recommended textbooks, he searched, and looked for, some better textbook, first instead. He never got around to reading the prescribed texts at all.
When later he wanted to find a spiritual path, he found many, but he quickly moved on from them, looking for one even better than that last one just found.
On his computer, he searched for good note manager programs, but instead of being satisfied when he had found a really good one, he simply kept looking for something that he thought would be even still better than this last one.
To search is a type of action, and somebody who does not know what to do with their life will simply waste it in continuous searching like this, like that John is doing here.
Searching within is better than losing yourself in an outer search, but the same trap is there; too much inner searching just gets you more lost to yourself too.
The searcher is not a seeker, but only ever just a searcher.
They do not really seek anything.
They just like to search without getting results, as the search then occupies their time, and they think that they are being productive, but really they have wasted, time, and energy, on an endless search for nothing but the sake of the search.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
John was now old, and his searching had gotten him to old age, but with nothing much to show for his life of continual searching.
4 people like this
2 responses
@Shiva49 (26774)
• Singapore
6 Apr 22
I think all are like John at least to some extent - trying for better ways to live.
That means there are choices aplenty and that is also a blessing.
I try to pause and take in the sights but soon the search begins for newer pastures.
I have also seen a few continuously changing TV channels and after quite a while telling exasperatingly there is nothing good to see!
Not forgetting some looking for a better life partner all the time but without being conscious of their own limitations too!
3 people like this
@innertalks (22088)
• Australia
6 Apr 22
Continual searching can be tiring, and if we have been searching all of our lives, sometimes we also want to slow down from this searching, as we get older.
We more want to see results then, rather than still be searching for ways to obtain them still.
The grass is really always browner in the other paddock, and we need to stay at home, and to cultivate our own field first.
We will be buried in our own soil, so we should make use of it to live off, while we still live too.
Trying to grow stuff in somebody else's plot, or soil, is a form of envy, and this is about our trying to plunder someone else's life, rather than our living of our own, from our own too.
On the other hand, nothing is really ever exclusively owned by anyone, except perhaps our own self, is ours alone, as is God, God alone too.
So, we need to balance the grabbing of the results of outer wanting and searching, with inner being, and giving too.
@Shiva49 (26774)
• Singapore
7 Apr 22
@innertalks Yes, living is the priority rather than searching all the time for better options and choices to live.
In a way, it is like missing the forest for the trees. Others are taken and it is for us to chart our own course.
There is a take some are luckier but in my opinion, luck evens out, and benefit from large inheritances has its own pitfalls. My friend might say he is ready to accept all the downsides but give him the money first.
I recall a boon given but to make a choice - immense wealth but a life of unhappiness or a life of happiness and contentment but zilch wealth. Some might say give them all the money and they will then deal with the unhappiness.
Never forget to live in the moment and put the searching on the back burner - not put the cart before the horse. .
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26774)
• Singapore
8 Apr 22
@innertalks Thanks Steve, for them, everything is par for the course, water off the duck's back.
It is good that people can take them on in liberal democracies unlike in some countries where they have to grin and bear it!
Watch Scott Morrison get confronted by a man who angrily accuses him of failing Australians on pensions.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (22088)
• Australia
6 Apr 22
An extraordinary life is a sort of a judgement though, as nobody could really say, that a tree living for 400 years in the same spot has not lived an extraordinary life either.
If we spend our life trying to live an extraordinary life, it is really just another type of searching too.
Perhaps, we should be content with living an ordinary life, in an extraordinary way, instead of searching and trying to live an extraordinary life.
Mother Teresa said:
"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
Which sort of agrees with the sentiment of what I just said too.
Should we strive to live an extraordinary life, or not, then?
I would more say that we should strive to live our life for love, and let the extraordinariness come of itself.
We should not pursue anything other than just living this life of love, as Mother Teresa advocated there too.
